Imbrued

By Emma L Edwards

Sanguinary Series Book 2

Angel is surviving. But is someone about to try and put an end to that? Again.

After the harrowing experiences that she went through, Angel is trying hard to keep things on track. Although she sometimes feels that she is just going through the motions of life. Her heart still pumps her blood but she doesn’t feel alive.

Until her life is turned upside down again when a traumatic event draws her back into the blood drinking world. But it is a world that has changed dramatically. A world where legends and reality blur. Where myths and facts collide.

A slayer has risen.

A slayer with a stake in his hand. A stake destined for the hearts of those that Angel loves.

In the battle that ensues, she must fight, not only for herself but for all those that she holds dear. But who will survive?

More sex, blood and rock ‘n roll.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Emma L Edwards
• Release date: Dec 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301057917

Book preview

Chapter 1

He looked like a god. His worshippers screamed at his feet, hands reaching out, desperate to touch him. The drums beat out a tattoo that I could feel in my heart, thumping together in rapid unison.

To go with the body of a god he had the face of an angel; a dark, dangerous, fallen angel. A full sensuous mouth, angular cheeks and eyes that were deep and dark. All of this was framed by a wild mane of jet black hair that reached past his shoulders.

The guitars became quieter as the song slowed its pace. He moved to the front of the stage, lifted his foot up onto a speaker, bending his body forward. With his head down he raised his eyes to stare at some point at the back of the room. His voice softened as he sung, he ran his hand through his hair and for a second everything paused, including my breathing. Then the song kicked back in, heavy drums and guitars and he screamed the words. He moved backwards, knocking the microphone stand over. Then he turned away from the audience, naked from the waist up, wearing only black leather trousers. On his back I could see the black bat tattoo that stretched across there. It wasn’t his only tattoo; amongst others was my name in gothic lettering across his stomach and the word that ran down his forearm, Sanguinary. Things that he had branded onto his body, to torment and to haunt himself.

His face was intense, his eyes roved but never settled on anyone or anything. Every mannerism, every quirk was familiar to me. Ever since I’d first met him, that man had held my heart in his hands. Unfortunately he usually chose to crush it.

The club that I was in was hosting the Battle of the Bands, a local competition where bands would compete in stages until there was a final winner. Ash’s band, Erebis had made it to the second round and I was in the audience. I just wished that I wasn’t; because it hurt to watch him and want him. A hurt that I seemed to feel in every part of my body, every part of my essence ached with longing for him.

The song ended and the band kicked into what would be their last song and my night was about to take a turn for the worse. Their last song was new, one that I hadn’t heard before. It was a song about hurt and pain and when he uttered the words ‘I hate you’ in the chorus I felt as though something had been twisted inside me. Listening to the lyrics I don’t think that I was being portentous to believe that it was about me.

I thought about escape but felt trapped by his voice, I couldn’t take my eyes from him as he sang, looking tortured. I felt as though it was killing me. The song wound down towards its end, Ash was on his knees at the front of the stage, his body slick with sweat. He bent over and screamed into the microphone ‘I hate you’ and then on a whisper, ‘I love you.’

The stage was plunged into darkness. The crowd screamed for more. I was still no less paralysed, thinking that now it would be pretentious of me to think that the song was meant for me.

‘Are you okay, Angel?’ A voice asked, startling me out of my reverie. I had forgotten that he was there.

‘Yeah,’ I said and I took a swig of coke out of the glass that I was clutching in my hands. It was warm and flat and it tasted disgusting. As if it wasn’t disgusting enough at times to be in a nightclub and drinking only coke.

‘You like that band?’ Gary asked, frowning at me.

‘Yeah,’ I said again, feeling vague, liked them? I goddamn loved them.

I put the coke down, it was undrinkable anyway.

‘Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?’ he asked.

I looked at Gary and speculated what could be possibly right. I wondered, not for the first time, what the hell I was doing there with him. He did look somewhat out of place, even though he wore jeans they were light blue, smart and neatly pressed, his polo shirt was white and pristine, and his light brown hair was perfectly cut and slicked back tidily. Amongst the general theme of blackness in the club he did stand out, although he had made an attempt not to and failed miserably. It had been his idea to go there, to Domain, the club that had been central to my life, in many ways, good and bad over the years. He had nagged me relentlessly for me to take him ‘to my sort of place’. And there we were, in my sort of place, where I fit in perfectly and he looked as out of place as an elephant on a farm. Although, to his credit, it did not seem to make him uncomfortable.

‘Nothing is wrong,’ I snapped at him.

Very wisely Gary seemed to decide that I was best left alone. He excused himself, as politely as ever saying he was going to the bar.

So I was left alone with my misery. It was always hard for me to see Ash, who had once been and still was the love of my life, my soul-mate, my kindred spirit, the one. Thing was, he felt exactly the same as me. So everything should be perfect, right? No, not at all because he would not let us be together. I could never understand why. It didn’t hurt me any less than it had done four months previously when I had walked out of his house. We had not been together again since then.

Ash has issues…Ash is a vampire. That is, he has an actual physical need for blood. He doesn’t kill people to gain the blood that he requires; he takes it from willing donors. I had been that to him once, he had drunk my blood but not anymore; only because he wouldn’t let me be anything to him. Although he insists that he accepts what he is, he doesn’t at all. He’s tormented by it, by his family’s rejection of him because of it and seems to feel better when he punishes himself for it. And he was certainly punishing me as well in the process.

I stared at the drink on the table in front of me, wrapped my hands around the glass and willed for some alcohol to magically appear in it. Whisky and coke would have been good, even a flat, warm one. Suddenly a hand clamped around my wrist. I didn’t need to look up to see who the hand belonged to, I certainly recognised it anyway. Those long slim fingers that were not only extremely gifted on the strings of a guitar but which had also proved to be talented when it came to my body. There was a silver ring on every finger and the nails were painted with black varnish. Then there was the feeling that I was getting from his touch. Like an electricity pulse at the points of contact. The vibration ran up my arm, to my heart that ached and to my stomach that swirled.

I did look up then, into his eyes that were as dark as his nails, rimmed, as always, with black kohl which emphasised the darkness. All the old feelings did not come flooding back because they had never been anywhere. They had always remained inside me, not fading even slightly. They tormented me and would not leave me alone.

My heartbeat accelerated as we stared into each other’s eyes. The look in them gave me hope, even as I despised a part of myself for being so damn desperate for him. The last time that I had been that close to him, looking into his eyes there had been barriers there. Ones that he had erected and he hid behind them. They weren’t there anymore. There was a need in his eyes.

Afterwards, when the events that followed unfolded I would think that it was so strange that he had chosen that moment to reach out for me. For four months we had not spoken to each other. We had seen each other, it was unavoidable really as one of his best friends, Jay, was also a good mate of mine and they lived in the same house. Whenever I had walked into a room he had walked out of it. We had parted on almost civil terms, everything bubbling, no boiling below the surface. In fact we had made love and then I had left, saying goodbye on his doorstep, knowing that it was a final farewell. I had told him that we couldn’t be friends, because the feelings were too strong for both of us. It was all or nothing, it had to be that way for us. It was him that had chosen nothing.

So, as I said, four months of no contact and there he was, with that look in his eyes, reaching out to me. There were things that would happen only a few days later that would throw me back into his world, unavoidable by both of us. Yet he couldn’t really have known that as he laid his hand on my arm and stared into my eyes. Maybe he had a feeling that something bad was coming, the vampires did have some sort of sixth sense that wasn’t precise but a keen perception. Like they could always find me if they wanted to, wherever I was, just by following their intuition.

As we stared at each other I willed him to say something, anything. I still love you, want you, need you. But he didn’t speak and I wasn’t really capable of doing so either.

‘Angel.’

It was not Ash that spoke, Gary was back. I didn’t look away from Ash, I kept my eyes locked onto his, imploring him to speak, not to let the moment slip away. Ash glanced at Gary, and then when he looked back at me, I saw many familiar emotions flicker through his eyes. They ended on anger, as they always seemed to with Ash. He was frowning at me, the barriers back in place. He released my arm, turned and walked away, disappearing into the crowd that parted for him. I could only watch him and notice that most of the women in the vicinity were looking at him too.

When he had gone from my sight I looked at the place on my arm where his hand had been. He had left little indents where his fingers had dug into my flesh, just above the tattoo that he had designed and arranged for me to have done which encircled my wrist. I hadn’t even noticed his fingers digging in at the time.

‘Everything okay, Angel?’ Gary asked. ‘Wasn’t that the singer from the band?’

I looked back up at him and scowled, annoyed at him for interrupting mine and Ash’s connection. Except annoyed didn’t even really cover it. I felt like ripping his heart out just so that he would know how it felt.

‘I need a drink,’ I said.

Gary held a fresh glass of coke out to me. I shook my head and stood up. I needed something stronger.

Back in the Ash days I’d had something of an addiction to alcohol, mainly whisky but most of the time it didn’t matter as long as it had the desired effect. Oblivion. My sister went as far as to call me an alcoholic and I suppose I was, although I never believed it at the time. I drank to forget, to mask the pain. It didn’t take therapy to cure me of my addiction; I’d almost been murdered by a serial killer, someone who had once been a friend to me. I believe that for a few moments I had actually died, in that strange instant I underwent a weird out of body experience. I had survived though and I gave up the bad living and just got on with coping with life. But I dared not take one sip. All it had taken was one touch from Ash, and the old urges were there. As much as I tried to convince myself that I could, I just could not handle life without Ash; especially when he had just been in front of me, touching me.

I pushed past Gary and headed to the bar. When I reached it I had a struggle with my conscience. Just one whisky would probably tip me over the edge and back into oblivion. One drink and it would not end there.

Gary caught up with me. ‘Do you want to leave?’

I cursed him and was grateful to him. He had saved me but I didn’t really want to be saved. I nodded. He took my hand, sparking none of the feelings that Ash had and led me out of the dark club.

The day had been hot but the late spring night air was still chilly and I shivered, although it wasn’t just the cold that was affecting me, Ash played his part there too. Gary put an arm around me, contact that I didn’t really want. Without asking him if he wanted to go elsewhere I guided us into walking towards my flat. More than anything I just wanted to be alone.

‘Are you okay?’ he asked.

‘Yeah,’ I replied.

‘That was Ash?’ Gary asked.

‘Yeah,’ I said. I knew that I was treating Gary badly, being distant with him but I could not pretend any different. I could not hide how affected I was by Ash. I had previously told Gary about Ash, admitted that I was still hung up on him. It was no surprise to him really; he had always found me distant at times, unable to give anything of myself to him.

I had no idea what I was doing even going on dates with someone like Gary, anyway. He was so far removed from what I usually looked for in a man. It was only sheer perseverance from him that I had ever actually gone on a date with him in the first place and then endurance on his part that there had been any more dates. If it had been left to me I would have let him fade away, left myself to pine for someone who didn’t want to be with me.

My flat was only a short distance from the city centre and we walked it in about ten minutes. We stopped outside. I didn’t ask him in, didn’t feel like the pretence or feeling the pressure of his desire for something more from me.

‘Well, thanks for taking me to your club,’ he said.

‘Sorry for the way I’ve been, Gary,’ I said, feeling some remorse for him. I didn’t dislike him, there was nothing to dislike, he was so compliant, would do anything to make me happy. I just didn’t love him, felt no passion for him.

‘Don’t worry,’ he said. I let him kiss me, a chaste peck that I drew back from quickly.

‘Goodnight,’ I said, stepping away from him.

‘Goodnight. I’ll call you,’ he said.

He stood and waited, like the courteous gentleman that he was for me to open the door to the house. It was only when I went in safely that he would walk away.

Once inside I leant back against the door, the house was quiet. My flat was part of a house that was split into three apartments. My living area consisted of a living room and a separate bedroom on the first floor. The kitchen and bathroom were shared, my best friend Minnie lived on the top floor. I glanced at the door to the ground flat, that held all of its own bad memories.

I went to the kitchen and looked into the fridge. There was an open bottle of wine staring back at me. Minnie really was the greatest friend but not always the most considerate person. It wouldn’t even occur to her not to leave temptation in the path of a onetime alcoholic. I struggled with it for a while, I needed it more than ever, but Minnie would notice that it had gone. And she wouldn’t just be pissed off because I had drunk her wine; but because I was slipping back into my old bad ways.

I slammed the fridge door and trudged up to my flat, empty handed and alone.

Chapter 2

The morning after Ash had reached out to me in Domain, I awoke feeling in a more positive mood. Glancing at the clock on my bedside table I realised that I had about half an hour to get to work.

I took a quick two minute shower to freshen up, dried and dressed as quickly as possible. Then I hurried down to the kitchen, again glancing at the door to the ground floor flat. I just couldn’t get used to the fact that Rochelle wasn’t there anymore. And that someone else was. Rochelle, who had once occupied the ground floor flat and had been a very close friend of mine, was dead. She had been murdered by the ‘Vampire Killer’, the same person who had almost killed me. A new girl had moved into the flat, but for some reason she seemed to be terrified of me and Minnie. Admittedly, when she moved in we had not gone out of our way to be overly welcoming to her, we just didn’t have it in us. The landlord who had been losing rent on the apartment had been eager to move someone else in as quickly as possible. It could not have been much more than a few weeks after Rochelle had been officially pronounced dead that the new girl moved in. It was much too fast for me and Minnie to take, we had not really accepted that Rochelle was never going to come back, we still thought of it as her room. We hadn’t been unkind to Amber, the new girl, but we were not particularly pleased to have her presence. Of course she knew nothing of our problems but at the time I was in no state to make the effort to explain anything to her. I had lost a close friend, almost been murdered myself, found out that my childhood sweetheart was a crazed murderer and had been dumped by the man that I loved, so I wasn’t in a particularly patient frame of mind.

So Minnie and I had not been the happiest campers when Amber moved in. I knew that I had made an attempt to be friendlier towards her when I had recovered slightly from my ordeals but whenever I spoke to her she averted her gaze, dropped her head and scuttled away. Minnie usually got the same reaction from her.

I think that mine and Minnie’s appearance did little to appease Amber’s attitude towards us either. We were both fond of black and our appearance leaned towards the alternative.

When I entered the kitchen Minnie was already there, buttering some toast. I grabbed a piece off the plate.

‘Hey,’ Minnie said and scowled at me.

‘I’m running late for work,’ I said, with a mouthful of toast.

‘So am I,’ she said, putting two more pieces of bread into the toaster. ‘Now.’

I grabbed the coffee that she had already made for me. ‘Minnie, you are an angel,’ I said and gave her a buttery kiss on the cheek.

‘You’re supposed to be the angel,’ she said, wiping away the smear that I had left.

‘Only by name, not by nature,’ I smiled and took another bite of toast.

She frowned at me and narrowed her eyes. ‘What’s happened to make you so cheery on a Monday morning? Had a good shag? And if so, please do not tell me it was Gary.’

‘I saw Ash last night,’ I said. The toast popped up, Minnie began to butter it.

‘That usually only makes you miserable. I take back what I said earlier; please do not tell me that it was Ash that you shagged.’ She passed me a second piece of toast.

‘What sort of slut do you think I am?’ I asked coyly.

She only raised her eyebrows at me, so I continued. ‘I was in Domain with Gary. He’d gone to the bar or something. Ash came over and he looked at me, there was something different in his eyes. Maybe he’s changing his mind about us.’

Minnie rolled her eyes. ‘For fucks sake Angel, do you realise how pathetic you sound right now? When will you let this go? Why do you have to put yourself through this? Ash is no good for you; whatever happens with him will end in you getting hurt again.’

‘Minnie, I still love him,’ I said.

‘I never thought that I would live to hear Angel Harris sounding so drippy. Just remember how you were when you came back here when Ash told you it was finished.’ She walked to the door, her toast still in her hand. ‘I’m going to work.’

‘Hey, what are you doing tonight?’ I called.

‘Meeting you in Domain,’ she shouted back as the kitchen door slammed shut behind her.

I sank down at the table to drink my coffee. Everything that Minnie had said was right.

On that cold winters morning when I had left Ash, for what I saw at that moment to be the last time, my heart had felt as though it had been breaking. My breath puffed in front of me as I sobbed whilst I walked. I had already been through hell by then anyway. Ash had saved me from near death when David had wanted me to be his bride of Dracula. I had almost bled to death. Celeste, who is also a vampire, has a special gift of healing which she inherited from her mother. Together they brought me back from the edge, although I had already plummeted over the brink once. When I had recovered Ash and I made love and said that we loved each other. Then he told me that we couldn’t be together. I tried to argue with him. But as usual, Ash just wouldn’t listen. So, I left.

The first place that I went was the police station because I had spoken to the Detective that was leading the murder investigation on the phone and he was slightly disbelieving of my story. We were already known to each other by then, because of Rochelle’s disappearance and my own experience of being drugged at a party. The police had already arrested David, Ash hadn’t killed him. Only because he hadn’t had the chance as he had been too concerned about saving me. But he had given the police an anonymous tip-off about David’s misdemeanours. I had lost a lot of blood in the cellar that David used to kill his victims and the police thought that they were looking for one last body. I’d told the Detective that the body they were looking for was mine and it was still very much alive.

When I went to the police station the Detective had been very attentive and concerned about me. I must have looked in quite a bad way and I was only just about managing to function. I had told him as much as I could without giving away anything about Ash. The vampires were very protective of their privacy and I had found that out the hard way, but that’s another story. You may have already heard it.

Detective Franklin personally gave me a lift home after I’d finished telling him my version of events. My evidence would be important as David would be going to trial for his crimes and I would be the main witness. When we pulled up outside my flat the Detective laid a hand on my arm, looked into my eyes and told me to take care.

Minnie must have heard the front door open because as I went up the stairs she met me in the middle. We flung ourselves at each other and cried. I think that we stayed in that state for what must have been a few days. We never left each other alone and were constantly tearful; for so many reasons, really. The reality of Rochelle’s death had to sink in, I had my experience with David to deal with and she had been frantic with worry when I had disappeared after David had kidnapped me. And for me there was Ash, as there always would be.

Amber came into the kitchen, startling me slightly. I had been staring at the bottom of my empty coffee cup. I glanced at the clock in the kitchen and realised that I was going to be late for work.

‘Damn, I’ve got to get to work,’ I said to Amber.

She avoided eye contact and said. ‘Yeah. Bye.’

I rolled my eyes. Although I did not think that it was solely her fault, it was hard having to share a bathroom and kitchen with someone who I did not get on with. It had never been like that with Rochelle, but maybe that was the problem.

I went to my flat, grabbed my bag and rushed back down the stairs and out on to the street. I walked the short distance to the city centre, where my work place was. I have quite an unstable job history, no job ever lasting long, a bit like my love life really. But the job that I’d found when I had decided that I had to get my life back together was perfect for me. My ambition in life was to be a published writer, any previous jobs I had seen as merely a fill in until I could achieve my dreams. Until, I found the job in the bookshop. It had been a few weeks after my traumatic time that I had walked past the shop, as I had done many times. It is in a small shopping arcade away from the main throng of city centre shops, right next to my most frequented coffee shop, Café Noir. I happened to glance in the window and there was a card there, advertising for staff. I had gone straight inside. My bank account was empty and I had done just about all the begging that I could face to my parents. The owner of the bookshop was Cherise, I spoke with her informally and she gave me the job straight away. She later told me that it was because it was apparent that I loved books and she positively encouraged me to write whilst I worked in her shop. She was very enthusiastic about encouraging new writing blood. Cherise is also a Wiccan and coincidently, I later found out that she knew Celeste’s mother, Meredith.

So when I went to work I took my laptop with me and wrote when we were quiet. As a result of Cherise’s support and my own need to disappear into a fictional world to escape the heartache of reality I had managed to finish the book and editing it too. Cherise was willing to fund me in getting it published to sell in her shop. It had been sent away for printing and we were awaiting the finished products to be delivered. It was far from making me rich but at least I was going to get the satisfaction of seeing my book in print and I could actually say that I was an author.

That morning though, I was a few minutes late in opening up. I unlocked the door and hurried to tap the code into the security alarm. Numbers satisfactorily keyed in the incessant bleeping that was doing nothing for my head stopped. I switched the lights on and installed myself behind the counter. It wasn’t long before my mobile rang, I glanced at the caller ID, which told me it was Gary.

‘You feeling okay?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, sorry about last night,’ I said. I did mean it; I knew that it wasn’t fair on him to be blatantly preoccupied with someone else whilst I was on a date with him.

‘It’s okay. You can make it up to me at lunch today,’ he said, his voice gave no annoyance away.

‘Sorry, meeting Coral,’ I said.

‘Tonight?’

‘I’ve sort of arranged something with Minnie,’ I said, ‘Sorry Gary, I’m not making excuses. Tomorrow okay? We’ll go out somewhere tomorrow, maybe your kind of place.’

‘Did you think that I didn’t fit in at your kind of place?’ he asked.

‘Could you honestly say that you enjoyed it?’ I asked.

‘I could enjoy being stretched on a rack as long as you were there,’ he said.

I rolled my eyes at his comment. I didn’t even understand why we were even still seeing each other. For him it must have been hard work and I didn’t really know why I was making some attempt at respectability by going out with him. I did like him but we were just too different in every possible way. Whereas Ash and I were too much the same, that’s what we saw in each other, that kindred spirit.

Gary told me that he would ring me again later to sort out a date for the following evening, I was just happy to get him off the phone.

Throughout the morning a few customers came in but Monday mornings always tended to be quiet. I set my laptop up and began working on my second book.

I didn’t manage to get much writing done though; Ash was proving to be a great distraction already. Cherise came down at lunchtime so that I could take my break and I made my way across the city to the bar that I had arranged to meet my sister in.

Coral was already waiting for me; she had found a table and had bought us two orange juices; orange juice for me because Coral was determined to keep me away from alcohol. I still vividly remembered the argument that we’d had when she had thrown that word at me, ‘alcoholic’, and orange juice for her because she was six months pregnant. The news had come as quite a shock to me, although it had been a matter of contention between her and her husband for some time. He wanted kids; she didn’t want to lose her career. But there she was with an already huge bump in front of her.

We ordered food. She had a salad, which she tucked into with enthusiasm, whilst I had a baked potato that I could only prod with my fork. My stomach was swirling too much to even consider supplying it with food. All I could think of was Ash and that look in his eyes.

‘How’s Gary?’ she asked.

Gary was only the second boyfriend of mine that my family had actually approved of. Coral and I were so different; she had always been safe and dependable, successful in her career and happily married. Whereas I was always as fickle in my relationships as I was in my career. My boyfriends tended to be undesirable to my parents but very desirable to me. But then along came Gary who was more in Max, Coral’s husband’s league.

‘He’s okay,’ I said, with about the same amount of enthusiasm that I felt for the food on my plate in front of me. Ash always used to have that effect on me. I never felt like eating, but I felt like drinking loads of alcohol. Oh, Minnie was absolutely right; he was no good for me at all.

‘What’s on your mind?’ she asked, putting a fork full of salad into her mouth.

‘Nothing,’ I said.

‘Not in love, are you?’ she asked with a smile.

I raised my eyes to meet hers. In love? Of course I bloody was. Except it was not with who Coral was thinking it was. I couldn’t tell her the truth though, she had never liked Ash and she seemed so hopeful that I would end up in a serious relationship with someone like Gary.

‘No,’ I said. But she grinned knowingly, as if I was in denial.

Considering that me and Minnie lived in the same house, sometimes we hardly seemed to see each other. Because of both our hectic lifestyles we tended to breeze in and out. When I arrived home from work she wasn’t around. I ate a sandwich alone in the kitchen and went up to my room to get ready to go back out.

I selected a short tartan skirt and a black top. I finished off with knee length black boots. I touched up my makeup, ringing my green eyes in black kohl. I did little with my hair, naturally curly and vibrant red, it usually ended up looking wild anyway. I was ready and left to head to Domain.

I walked into the city centre and I was soon at the club. Ever since those dark January days I have felt a pang of melancholy whenever I walk into Domain; I always have to take a moment to stop and look around, just to breathe. It was there that Rochelle had gone missing, the last place that she had been seen alive. David, her murderer had worked there. The place held so many memories, good and bad. It was the place that I had first laid eyes on Ash and spoken to him. The first time that he told me that he loved me had been there. We’d had sex in one of the back rooms straight afterwards. We’d had plenty of fights there too.

There was no sign of Minnie anywhere, I was about to dial her mobile to find out where she was when a pair of arms enveloped me. I flung my own arms around him and welcomed the hug. He released me enough that I could kiss his cheek and still we held each other. I smiled as I looked up at him. He was gorgeous, almost as tall as Ash; his hair was longer now, but still black until the tips that were dyed bright red.

‘You were in here last night? You heard the good news?’ Jay asked.

I had met Jay through Ash. Jay played lead guitar in Erebis, Ash’s band. We had become close whilst I had been with Ash and even after Ash and I had split up we stayed very tight friends. Jay was a rock to me, especially in the tumultuous days and nights after my ordeal.

‘I, uh, left early,’ I said.

‘Battle of the Bands, we’re through to round three,’ he said, grinning.

‘Really?’ I squealed, pulling him back into our hug. ‘That’s amazing.’

‘Well, you know, we were the best of course,’ he said.

I kissed him again. ‘Of course you were. I’m so happy for you guys. Is Ash pleased?’

He eased off the hug so that he could look at my face. ‘You know Ash.’

‘He came to me last night,’ I said.

‘Oh god, Angel, don’t look like that,’ he said, holding me at arms length and frowning.

‘What?’

‘Dreamy, hopeful,’ he said. ‘I don’t want you to get hurt. I love you, honey and I love Ash too but no, not you two together.’

I was saved from answering as Sebastian, the band’s drummer, appeared at Jay’s side.

‘Hey, Angel,’ Sebastian said.

‘Seb,’ I said and went from Jay’s arms to his. Sebastian had been Ash’s friend since childhood. He wasn’t a vampire but had once been Ash’s donor and was now Celeste’s.

‘How is Celeste?’ I asked, Celeste was seven months pregnant and I hadn’t seen her for too long. I phoned her often but seeing her was difficult as she and Sebastian lived in the same house as Ash.

‘She’s doing great,’ he said and grinned. ‘She’s looking beautiful.’

‘I haven’t seen her for ages,’ I said.

‘She keeps asking about you,’ he took my hand. ‘You shouldn’t avoid the house because of Ash; Celeste would love to see you.’

‘I know but it’s difficult. I promise to come and see her soon,’ I said.

Seb turned to Jay. ‘We’ve got a gig in The Lair later. We’d better go and round up the troops.’

‘Yeah,’ Jay looked at me. ‘You gonna be okay?’

‘Yeah, I’m meeting Minnie,’ I said. I kissed both of them, promising Seb that I’d visit Celeste soon.

I phoned Minnie who told me that she was held up at work but was on her way.

For want of something better to do I went to the bar, even though nothing alcoholic awaited me there. As I waited to be served a hand appeared either side of me on the bar and in effect blocked me in. A body pressed close in behind me. I presumed that it was someone who knew me. I turned, a familiar face was smiling down on me as he stood way too close.

‘Kieran, what are you doing?’ I asked him. Kieran lived at the house with the vampires. He was one of Cat’s fledglings, the young newly awakened vampires that she took in and taught them in the ways of the blood. He was also incredibly gorgeous and very flirtatious.

‘Waiting for you to make me a man,’ he said. These comments were frequent from him and goddamn it, I was tempted a lot of the time. He was tall and broad, his face youthful and enthusiasm sparkled in his green eyes. He was also arrogant but in a loveable way. But at nineteen he was seven years younger than me and given that he lived in the same house as Ash it would have sent more than a few sparks flying. He was also having some sort of loose relationship with Tabby, another of Cat’s new fledglings.

‘I don’t think that you need me to make a man of you,’ I said, my words were very true; testosterone came off him in waves. I placed my hands on his hard chest and gazed up at him. I was no better than he sometimes really, as I did a fair bit of flirting back with him. ‘Besides what would the lovely Tabitha say about it?’

His hands moved from the bar and closed around my back instead causing his body to lean even closer into mine. He lowered his head. ‘She is but a girl, whereas you are all woman.’ His lilting Irish accent made him sound far too sexy than was good for me.

I slapped him on the chest. ‘Now you’re just making me feel old.’

‘Come on Angel, you’re the most beautiful girl in this club,’ he moved his head closer still, close enough that a slight move and our lips would have met. ‘When are you going to give in to my irresistible charms?’

I pushed him away from me slightly before I did give into him. The toy boy idea was becoming more appealing by the moment, which definitely made me feel old. ‘Come back to me when you’re at least not still a teenager and I’ll consider it.’

‘It’s my birthday next month,’ he said, still smiling.

‘Yeah? Well, I’ll want to see proof of that and maybe I’ll give you an extra special birthday present,’ I said.

‘I’ll hold you to that,’ he said and gave me an extra squeeze. Then he released me and stepped back. I smiled at him as he walked away. As he moved out of my view the smile died on my lips. Standing at the back wall of the club, dressed completely in black with his arms folded was Ash. He was staring at me, probably having just witnessed me with Kieran. I knew, from what I had been told by Jay that Ash and Kieran did not really get on with each other. From the look on Ash’s face it looked as though their relationship was about to disintegrate further.

I couldn’t look away though. Our eyes locked onto each other’s and neither of us moved. People walked in front of us, still we held on. I felt him again, that he was reaching to me. He had left me alone for four months and suddenly there he was, his dark gaze falling on me again.

A body blocked our view, except this one didn’t move out of the way. It took me a few moments to focus on Minnie in front of me.

‘It’s a good job I’m here to save you from yourself sometimes,’ she said, all cute bunches and folded arms.

I shoved her out of the way. Ash was gone.

‘Goddamn it, Minnie,’ I shouted in annoyance.

‘Angel, what the hell are you doing? Let it go!’ she shouted back at me.

‘But it’s Ash,’ I said, as if that explained it all, which to me it did.

‘What the hell has happened to you? We used to be the same. Men were easy come and easy go. Months later and you’re still hung up on him and living like a nun. For fucks sake, go and shag Kieran and get Ash out of your system,’ she said. She gave me once last scowl and marched off to the bar. I looked back at where he had been but Ash was nowhere to be seen.

I caught up with Minnie at the bar. She may have been annoyed at me, but I was equally as irritated with her for coming between me and Ash.

I grabbed her elbow and turned her to face me. ‘Maybe you’ll fall in love one day and then you’ll understand how I feel.’

‘Love?’ she yelled. ‘This isn’t love. This is obsession, torture. He doesn’t want you, when are you going to get that and stop hanging on?’

Her words hurt and tears stung at my eyes. She grabbed my arms. ‘I’m sorry Angel, but you have to let this go.’

I shook her hands off me. With tears burning my eyes I turned away. I battled my way through the crowd, my vision blurred by the tears that I would not let fall. I made it to the toilets. Ignoring the other women in there I stared at my reflection, trying to keep those tears in. My heavy black eye make-up would have run into a terrible mess if I let them go. Crap excuse not to cry really but it helped me be a little stronger. Minnie was so right, I knew that she was but that did not change the way that I felt. The door to the toilets banged and it wasn’t long before Minnie was standing in the mirror next to me. She put a hand on my shoulder.

‘I just don’t want to see you get hurt anymore,’ she said. ‘You’ve already been through so much this year.’

‘I know. I’m sorry for having a go at you. I just wish that I could let him go but I can’t.’ I turned to face her and accepted the hug that she offered.

We broke apart and she took hold of my hand. ‘Come on, let’s go get a drink.’

We went to the bar; she bought herself a bottle of lager and me a coke. We then wandered around the club. There were no seats, so we stood by the dance floor and chatted for a while. We finished our drinks, so it was my turn to go to the bar. The rest of the night was without incident and for me sober. Minnie flirted with as many men as possible, encouraging me to join in. But I didn’t have the enthusiasm for it and wondered if my life was indeed over. Celeste had once told me that Ash and I may live without each other but we couldn’t live without each other. That’s how I felt then, as if I was just going through the motions of living. Hurting a lot, laughing occasionally but never actually feeling alive.

The next morning I opened up the shop as usual and as it was quiet I was working on my laptop. Gary called my mobile to make arrangements for ‘taking me out to dinner’ as he put it. I didn’t want to go but I couldn’t be bothered to argue because I had no feasible excuse, so I agreed to him picking me up at seven.

The morning was uneventful until the door swung open and a figure barged in. Despite the heat outside he was wearing a black jumper with a hood pulled so high that it